Crosstree Real Estate Partners is preparing to bring to market for sale the jewel in the crown of its recently bought Argyll serviced offices platform, seeking upwards of £100 million, CoStar News understands.
Market sources said Crosstree has appointed JLL and Eastdil to advise on the sale of 33 St James's Square, which Argyll operates as a business centre and owns.
Crosstree completed its acquisition of London-focused high-end serviced office business Argyll from Alpine Grove Partners and The Baupost Group for around £330 million last week.
Argyll operates 25 assets in London, including a mix of listed buildings and modern office buildings. It owns ten of those outrigh, primarily in the West End and City core, including the Grade II-listed 33 St James’s Square. The 42,000-square-foot building was constructed in 1789 and is located close to Piccadilly Underground station.
At the time of the acquisition, Nick Lyle, founding partner at Crosstree, said in a statement that it was looking forward to working with the experienced management team to grow the business against the backdrop of a Central London prime office market that has recovered strongly since the end of the pandemic. "We expect continued strong momentum for prime offices driven by further 'flight to quality' by occupiers and limited new supply.”
The also included 1 Cornhill, which is the former Royal Insurance building opposite the Bank of England, 85 Gresham Street, and 78-79 Pall Mall.
The group is unusual in the serviced office space in that it has favoured freehold acquisitions rather than leasehold, although it now operates more buildings under leases. It has also introduced business memberships for its clubs across London.
Argyll, which has operated in London for decades under different names, was bought by Alpine Grove and Baupost via a restructuring process in 2021. Alpine Grove had been a previous owner of the business and it has reorganised operations, restructured leases and refurbished some of the buildings.
London Executive Offices was bought by Celvam from Queensgate for £475 million in 2017, and relaunched as The Argyll Club in 2018 announcing a £10 million-plus investment in its then-portfolio of 38 buildings.
Crosstree was advised by JLL, and Alpine and Baupost were advised by Eastdil Secured and Evercore.
(This story has been updated to include Eastdil as joint agent).